Information services (IS) messages, which provide information of a general interest, such as news headlines, sports scores, stock quotations, and the like, are becoming a popular option in modern messaging systems. Because IS messages can be lengthy, a service provider prefers to send each such message to a common IS address for simultaneous receipt by a plurality of subscriber units assigned to the common address, thereby conserving air time.
Conservation of IS air time can become difficult in large cities, where there may be multiple service providers offering messaging service on a plurality of communication channels. This is because each service provider independently schedules the IS messages for subscribers of his system on each of the channels utilized by his system. Each IS message thus is transmitted multiple times on multiple channels in the same city, which wastes valuable air time.
Thus, what is needed is a method and apparatus that can consolidate the delivery of IS messages in areas where multiple messaging systems are operating on multiple channels provided by a plurality of service providers. Preferably, the method and apparatus will operate such that it can be added transparently to existing messaging systems without the necessity of modifying the existing infrastructure or protocols used for message entry and transmission.